Now that I can blog from my phone, I can easily share my phone pics! Yeah! It's the small things these days that make me so happy. At church on Sunday our pastor talked about stress and worry. My new goal is to trust Him and find joy in everything. Because really, He's in control so why waste time taking things into my own hands. Right? Right.

Enough about that. Here are some sweet pictures from a recent fall festival we went to. We had fun. It was perfect for a two and four year old and very simple. Sometimes simple is just better.

Test...test...
Two awesome things tonight.
Coffee with Tamika.
Learned to blog from phone.
Love this girl.

We went to a corn maze a few weekends ago.  The kids had fun.  Chloe stayed home with Opa, which ended up being a very good decision.  It was fun to let the kids go into the maze alone and listen to their squeals from outside.  

It's become humorous that almost any event we plan that we think will be so much fun ends up with Brooks having a hard time obeying.  

He really is a good kid deep in his heart.  

He doesn't try to disobey and feels really bad when he does.  

It's just that his energy is unmatched and his emotion comes from the deepest part of his soul.  It's hard to explain, but just think of him as the only kid in our party that came out of the maze dripping sweat.  The other kids?  Not a drip.

So, just like most super fun things we do, he ended up losing his ice cream treat (which I wasn't ever really going to buy him anyway...shhh, don't tell him) because he just couldn't stop picking the corn from the maze.  After he'd picked 5 ears of corn and was asked to stop several times (the corn maze needed corn for at least 4 more weekends) the fun event ended up with a "settle down, listen to me and obey me" talk between child and parents.  Sigh.  Love him.

 There are some very sweet moments that go along with our challenges.  When the kids play together without fighting it's the best!  It's fun to listen to Brooks say things to Chloe like, "Chloe, let me just cut your fingers off." while he pretends to be the doctor.  Poor little sister.  She has no clue and does just about anything Brother asks.

 Brooks comes up with the best costumes.  Below:  Green Lantern, Buzz Lightyear, Captain America and Scary Mexican wrestling mask all in one!

Not to be outdone...

Meet Batgirl.

Miss Susan, our Nanny, says it best with a heavily sarcastic undertone.

"Heather!  I am so glad that Chloe finally got an I-Pod!  I mean, she is two years old and some weeks, isn't she?"

Ha.  Ha.  Ha.

I love that she can be so honest with me.

 Yes, Chloe has an I-Pod.  We got to thinking, and whether our thinking was right or wrong, (Please refrain from sharing your opinion.  You are ONLY allowed to do that if you are Super Nanny.) we decided to get Chloe an I-Pod.  

Our justification?  Well, if we were going to get her one when she was three or four, why not get one now and let her enjoy it?  So, off to the store Greg marched (or drove) and he bought our dear, sweet, tech-savvy, two-year-old her very own I-Pod.  

She navigates through the thing like a pro and loves her "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" and "Wheels on the Bus" app.  She also loves to make us ice cream sundaes and has been busted trying to eat them off of the screen.  

It's fun.  Really fun. And the buck-toothed, full body grin that we get every time we hand her her very own I-pod makes it so worth it.

 On another note.  Not a day goes by that one kid isn't trying to be the other kid.  Or one kid tells the other kids to "do this" or "try that".  It's great, as long as they are modeling obedient behavior and telling each other to try things that won't end up in disaster or injury.  

This is one of the more innocent, "Hey, look what I can do!  Try this, Brother!"  

I won't pretend this was all sweet and wonderful though.  Greg took the picture, but I am GUESSING (a well-educated guess) that it went something like this:

--Chloe put the lunch bag on her head. 

--Brooks screamed "I want it!"

--Chloe squealed back and held onto it as tight as she possibly could while stiffening her entire body.

--Brooks attempted to take it off her head with force.

--Chloe started to cry and laid on the floor while very upset.

--Daddy intervened and explained they can both have a turn.

--Daddy took a picture of both of them.

--Kids are happy. 

--Daddy waits for kids to lose interest in the lunch bag.

--Daddy hides lunch bag.

There is very little peace around here.  Some days I long for a quiet house with no mess.  But then I get real with myself and play super hero for the fourth time in one day, remembering that I'm really going to miss this stuff.